Category: abundance in God

Mystery of God, mystery of sin

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fourth Sunday in Lent (Laetare Sunday), 30 March 2025
Joshua 5:9, 10-12 ++ 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ++ Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Photo by author, Chapel of Angel of Peace, RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima Un iversity, Valenzuela, 28 March 2025.

We enter the fourth Sunday in Lent today with shades of pink to “rejoice” not only because Easter is getting close but most of all for the joy of God’s immense love expressed in His mercy and forgiveness to us sinners.

Known as Laetare Sunday from the Latin entrance antiphon of the Mass calling us to “Rejoice!” as it is hoped that by this time, we feel nearer to God in our Lenten journey, having experienced His Mystery which our gospel presents today courtesy of Luke who invites us to enter the scene of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Many times we find ourselves wrapped in God’s Mystery with a capital “M” while entangled too in that other mystery of sin with a small “m” as this parable shows us.

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them Jesus addressed this parable: “A man had two sons…” (Luke 15:1-3, 11).

Jesus came to make God closest to us as our breath. As a Mystery, God is neither a concept nor an idea we have to understand in order to have or grasp to be possessed. It is God Whom we let to possess and wrap us in His Mystery for He is totally transcendent yet so personal with each of us. We do not see Him but we feel and experience Him as all-encompassing like nature around us that can be so breath-taking and awesome yet cannot be totally captured even by cameras. God is like the presence of insects and birds in a forest we delightedly listen to but so difficult to find or see.

Photo by author, Chapel of Angel of Peace, RISE Tower, Our Lady of Fatima Un iversity, Valenzuela, 28 March 2025.

That’s God – all around us, all-encompassing. Unfortunately, we are like the youngest son, proud and feeling independent with the gall and guts to ask God for our share of everything to be on our own when we do not have anything at all.

And off we leave to live a prodigal life or “wasteful extravagance”, slaving ourselves for wealth and fame and power until we hit rock bottom when suddenly we find ourselves empty and lost, sick and even alone. That is when we remember to come “home”, to return to our roots where it all began who is God.

As we sank deep in despair, we find a glimmer of hope within us where God is, where God had never really left us, always awaiting our return right there in our heart. He has always been there though we never recognized Him. Actually, that very moment we realized we are down and out, that was when God immediately ran to meet us.

Now, that mystery with a small “m” called sin we hardly notice.

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.

See again Luke as master storyteller in this lovely parable he alone has. See how Luke presents in a most subtle manner the mystery of sin not only as a breaking away from God and a violation of laws but a complete refusal to love.

Feel the youngest son in his asking for his share of inheritance from his father and his leaving home was not simply a breaking away but a refusal to love, a refusal to live, a refusal to be with the father.

That happens when we sin.

We do not tell God and our family and friends that we don’t love them but our walking away from them tells that so clearly. However, as we refuse to love when we sin, that is also when we deny the love right in our hearts, that we cannot stop loving because whatever we take after we have left are actually the very love of God and of our family and friends!

There is nothing truly ours in this world and because of God’s Mystery, we never lose His gift of love within us that when things get worst in our lives, it is the same love that gives us the spark to hope and believe again. It was that love that the youngest son missed and realized despite all his dramas as he went home to his loving father just like us too.

On the other hand, the parable presents to us too another pernicious effect of sin as a mystery which is its direct effect to our personality. As a refusal to love, sin has a direct effect to our personality because every time we sin we become a less loving person that is a contradiction of our identity and nature.

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.

Its worst part happens when we take small sins for granted including the little decisions we make that do not seem to be evil or bad, even without any vice at all; notice how after sometime of repeatedly committing them, our personality is affected, making us a less loving person that eventually breaks out in the open and we freakout like the elder son or those people caught on cam doing all the crazy stuff in public.

He said to this father in reply, “Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf” (Luke 15:29-30).

How often have we made the excuse para yun lang naman? That a little lying or cheating once won’t really matter, asking ano ba masama doon? (what’s bad/wrong)? as an excuse for things that seem to be not bad or sinful at all.

Recall the first Sunday of Lent, the temptation of Jesus, of how the devil is always in the details, tempting us with that device of increments, of apportioning to little things the big evil things, not showing us the whole picture like fake news peddled by demons.

A sin is always a sin, a refusal to love. Period. Whether we go big time in sins like the youngest son or small time in sins like his elder brother, sin is clearly a refusal to love that greatly affects our personality, our lives and that of others.

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.

We rejoice today for that great Mystery of God, of His immense love for each of us no matter how bad and how dark our sins are. God’s Mystery is His abounding love and mercy, forgiving our sins the moment we feel sorry for them.

He said to him, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (Luke 15:31-32).

As I turned 60 last Saturday, the overwhelming feeling I have had inside me is that deep gratitude to God’s love for me. Everything is grace that all the more I pray, “Lord you have given me with so much but I have given so little; teach me to give more of myself, more of your love, more of you to others.”

This time, I pray it with deeper conviction as I see both with joy and fear the bright horizon ahead with a distant shore beyond. There’s no more time to waste as St. Paul had noted in the second reading, I feel life now more definitive, that God is so undeniably real. Like St. Paul, “we are ambassadors for Christ” with the mission to help people “reconcile to God” especially in this final journey in life. God reminds us today that like during the time of Joshua in the first reading, the Eucharist is our new Passover where we thank God for His abounding love and mercy for us in this life and beyond. Amen.

Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 17 March 2025.

Lent is being wrapped in the mysteries of God

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, First Week in Lent, 12 March 2025
Jonah 3:1-10     + + +     Luke 11:29-32
Photo by author, Timberland Highlands Resort, San Mateo, Rizal, 08 March 2025.
Fill me, O God,
with wonder and awe
for you like Jonah!
Surprise me always
of your goodness among
your peoples;
help me in my unbelief!

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth (Jonah 3:1-5).

Loving God our Father,
you are so great and awesome,
more wide than the great city
of Nineveh yet so mysterious
that Jonah himself could not 
believe what he had seen:
the people of Nineveh believed 
in you and repented
a mere half day yet 
when he proclaimed
your message to them!

Many times in life,
we are like Jonah -
very reluctant in following
you, in obeying you because
your ways are so different, 
even beyond comprehension
yet so real; many times,
we feel we know more 
than you know; most of all,
most of the time, 
we insist our own
even to you.
Sorry, Lord.
Photo by author, Hidden Valley Springs Resort, Calauan, Laguna, 20 February 2025.
In this Season of Lent,
banish our evil thoughts,
banish the many reasons
and explanations we have
to open our minds and our hearts
to your mysteries
so we may read your many
signs of presence and power,
love and mercy
for us even in this time
in the world
when it has become
more difficult to believe in you
due to modern trends,
most especially of our own
stubbornness;
grant us that same disposition
you gave Jonah who finally
believed and obeyed you
in doing your work
in the way you want it done.
Amen.

Plant prayer

40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Tuesday, First Week in Lent, 11 March 2025
Isaiah 55:10-11     + + +     Matthew 6:7-15
Photo by author, 10 March 2025.
How lovely,
dear Jesus that every time
I receive a plant or flower from anyone,
automatically I offer them to you
on my prayer altar;
and here now,
my newest plant "abloom"
with my prayer today!

Thus says the Lord: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I send it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Photo by author, 10 March 2025.
In a few days
I am turning 60 years old
and in a month,
I shall have been a priest for 28 years;
in all those years, Lord,
it is prayer that has sustained me,
that has nourished me,
that has always been my life
even many times I never
knew it;
you have nurtured me in prayers
that at first was like a chore
taught to me by my parents
that later like a rain -
sometimes an outpour,
many times a drizzle,
and most often just a dew
to keep me moist.
Photo by author, 10 March 2025.
Keep me fertile like
the soil, Jesus,
and keep my leaves green
even without flowers
or fruit; 
just keep me soaked
in your words,
gently, subtly and
intimately to quench 
my thirst for you,
for meaning,
for life
that in the end,
I come and open myself
daily to God in your prayer,
saying,
"our Father".
Amen.
Photo by author, 10 March 2025.

Human being, not human doing

Quiet Storm by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 10 March 2025
When the devil
first tempted Jesus
"If you are 
the Son of God,
command this stone
to become bread"
the devil tempts us too
to forget our being
beloved children of God
by doing everything
and anything
for us to be reduced to
human doing
forgetting we are 
human being.
And so, Jesus told
the devil, "One does not live
by bread alone",
he tells us too today
even if we cannot do anything
because we are weak and sick,
even if we fail to do something
because we have forgotten or 
was so afraid,
we are still loved
for God is greater than
our hearts who cannot be seen
yet so true and so real,
fulfilling not just satisfying
than any bread.
Photo by author, Timberland Highlands Resort, San Mateo, Rizal, 08 March 2025.
When the devil tempted 
Jesus the third time,
"If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down 
from here",
the devil tempts us too
to totally forget God
because, after all,
whatever we do,
God still loves us;
of course, 
that is true: we are humans 
loved and cared 
in our being
not in our doing.
And so, Jesus told
the devil "You should not
put the Lord, your God
to the test",
he tells us too today
for us to stop pushing
the limits of morality
and decency,
and simply let 
the mysteries of God
and of life wrap us because 
they are greater than us,
not problems to be 
solved nor principles
to be understood.
Photo by author, 10 March 2025.
Life is a daily Lent,
a journey towards Easter,
a return to our first love,
 - God
in Jesus Christ his Son
in whom we have been baptized
and adopted
as his beloved children
as our being and identity:
so let us simply be
our true selves -
his beloved
since the beginning -
loving him totally
in our loving service to others.
This Lent
let us journey in Jesus
in prayer to be one in him;
in fasting to create space for him within;
in alms-giving to be one with
fellow human beings
for we are not
human doings
who cannot do everything
who cannot know 
and explain everything
except to wonder more,
to love more,
to appreciate more,
to believe and trust God more.
*Collage are photos of our students last February 09, 2025 spending a Sunday afternoon of love with children with cerebral palsy and family.

**Special thanks to our sister in faith, Nicola who gave us the idea for this poem, the beautiful terms "human being, human doing" from her blog https://eaglesight.blog/2025/03/02/rest-and-replenish/.

There is always hope

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, 03 March 2025
Sirach 17:20-24     <*((((><  +  ><))))*>     Mark 10:17-27
Photo by author, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.

To the penitent God provides a way back, he encourages those who are losing hope and has chosen for them the lot of truth. Return to him and give up sin, pray to the Lord and make your offenses few (Sirach 17:20).

In that long poem by
your faithful French writer
Charles Peguy (1873-1914),
you claimed O God that
hope is your favorite virtue
because it surprises you.
How lovely,
dear Father to imagine
you our God,
all-powerful
all-knowing
is still surprised,
something we have lost
in this time
when everything
is predictable,
nothing ever hidden.
Many times
I see myself that young man
in the Gospel
running to you in Jesus,
excitedly asking what must
I do to inherit eternal life?
But, when you answered
and asked me to give up
my possessions,
I balk,
I turn away sadly
because I just can't
give up all I have.
But, then
comes your greatest
surprise of all when we
reject you,
when we turn away from you:
you still look at us filled with
love!
There is always hope in you, 
Lord if we can just go back
to you in Jesus;
there is always hope 
in this world,
in this life
because you never run out
of surprises for us
because "all things are
possible for God" 
(Mark 10:27).
Amen.

In the beginning…

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Monday, Memorial of St. Scholastica, Virgin, 10 February 2025
Genesis 1:1-19     ><))))*>  +  ><))))*>  +  ><))))*>     Mark 6:53-56
Photo by author, sunset in Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
Blessed are you,
God our loving Father
in giving us a taste of
the beginning everyday
especially on this first day
of work and of school
as your words in the first reading
remind of our daily
beginning in you!

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters. Then God said, “Let there be…” Thus evening came, and morning followed… (Genesis 1:1-3, 7).

In the beginning
there was nothing but
chaos just like in our lives
until you brought light,
order and life, God;
it is always light and order
that come first to set the
stage for life like in those first
two days; what is most lovely,
Father is when the third day came
and there began balance and
symmetry in your creation 
like sea and earth, 
day and night,
sun and moon
that relationships happened
and everything started to be good.
Photo by author, sunset in Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
In the gospel today
as in our lives,
every day is a new beginning
with its many chaos:
sickness and diseases,
emptiness,
self-alienation,
rejection in all forms,
failures and disappointments
as well frustrations
that all remind us of how
everything was in the beginning;
but, with Jesus Christ's coming
and healing
we saw the light
and experienced healing
and order.

Everything becomes good
when seen in your light
and design, Lord Jesus;
when our relationships are
kept and maintained
especially at home like with
our siblings,
parents and family
as exemplified by the twins
St. Scholastica
and St. Benedict.

Make everything new again
and most of all good,
dear Jesus in our lives
like in the Genesis
as shown by St. Scholastica
who was able to do more
because she loved most.
Amen.
Painting “Altar of St. Scholastica” by Johann Baptist Wenzel Bergl (1765), ncregister.com

Being “caught” by Christ to catch for Christ

The Lord Is My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, 09 February 2025
Isaiah 6:1-2, 3-8 ><}}}}*> 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 ><}}}}*> Luke 5:1-11
Photo by author, sunrise at the Lake of Galilee, the Holy Land, May 2017.

In my almost 27 years in the priesthood, I have always found kids asking the most difficult questions in life than adults. What makes their questions more difficult is that there are no easy answers that you have to use some imagery.

That is why it is always good to pray in advance the coming Sunday gospel like last Tuesday when a young girl asked me why God had allowed her to be given away by her biological mother for adoption.

After a pause of silence as I reflected today’s gospel, I told her that many times we are “thrown” by God – inihahagis, iniitsa – like in baseball or basketball not to be lost but to be caught in order to be cared and loved to score points and win this game called life. God knew so well her adoptive mother is an excellent “catcher” in life who “caught” her to give her a better life like now going to a good school, being dressed properly, never gone hungry. Hence, my reflection on this Sunday’s homily is focused on that magic word “to catch”:

For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him (Luke 5:9-11).

Mosaic in the Church of St. Peter in Capernaum from thework-fso.org.

The word “catch” is a very catchy one (pun intended), used in various ways that could mean positively or negatively like in catching a bus or a train and catching a ball. We catch a meaning while we also catch a glance. We do a lot of catching daily in our lives like catching up with lessons and chismis that eventually we catch a cold or catch pneumonia after a kiss like in the song.

To catch means to intercept and hold, to have something or someone like when lovers are told of having a good “catch” with their girlfriend or boyfriend. That is why, it is always said that in catching, never drop what you have caught – take care, and cherish what you caught! It could be a prized catch after all.

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2019.

It is the same thing that Luke is telling us this Sunday, of how Jesus makes a marvelous catch not only with Peter and company but for all of us in the gospel.

Coming home from a night of fishing without any catch, Jesus saw Peter with his companions washing their net. They must have been very sad with nothing to bring home to their families and then came Jesus who was so keen with everyone’s feelings and situation. Jesus surely noticed the sadness in Peter that He borrowed his boat to teach the crowd who have been following Him.

After teaching and dismissing the crowd, Jesus asked Peter to go fishing again. Imagine Peter twice allowing Jesus to “catch” him: first, in borrowing his boat and second, in instructing him to “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

Imagine Peter so lugi (bankrupt) with Jesus borrowing his boat that could have been so worn out with holes to be His platform for teaching. Was it not insulting? Are we not like Peter sometimes? Or like his boat then borrowed by Jesus?

Good that Peter did not mind it at all but, when asked by Jesus to go out fishing again, we find a change in Peter already. Jesus had already caught Peter as he had caught the Lord’s words and teachings that he replied, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”

Photo by author, Macapagal Blvd.’s dampa restaurant, 2018.

The miraculous catch of fish caught Peter and everybody by surprise. See how Peter knelt to Jesus in reaction to their great catch instead of helping his men pulled their nets.

Most of all, Peter addressed Jesus as “Lord” whereas earlier, he called Him “Master”. There was already a recognition of Jesus more than a Teacher and Master but the Son of God for how can one really explain the great catch that happened?

The greatest sign that Peter was totally caught by Jesus was his conversion, when he begged the Lord to depart from him for he was a sinful man. At that point, Peter was already all caught up by Jesus along with his brother Andrew and their companions, the brothers James and John

Many times in life Jesus catches us by surprise in the most ordinary instances of our lives like in our daily routines. But most surprising of all is when Jesus catches us in our lowest moments in life too like Peter, deep in sin or deep in trouble, even deep into debts and other darkness in life. There are times we set limits to our patience and perseverance that we are so tempted to give up and quit, saying “I’ve had enough!” or “I’m done with this!”

Don’t give up, don’t quit! Jesus is passing by. If you feel like being thrown out of the room or up in the air or even the sea, muster all your courage and trust, Jesus is around waiting to catch you as you fall. Nobody had really gone rock bottom in life without anything at all. At least, we are still alive and that’s because Jesus had caught us, always carrying us in our worst moments in life.

That is why we have to do a lot of catching up with Jesus too. Persevere in prayer. Every failure, every suffering and pain is an opportunity to grow, to succeed, to meet someone or something so surprising who could be right beside you in the Sunday Mass.

Photo by Mr. Jim Marpa, 2019.

The Sunday gospel reminds us to be like Peter and company to remain open for new things and new persons who come to our lives who may be Jesus Himself passing by.

Yes, we may feel being thrown sometimes in life but not to fall but to be caught by Jesus, the best catcher of all time.

Let us allow ourselves to be caught by Christ like Paul in the second reading and Isaiah in the first reading. Despite their flaws in themselves, especially Paul who admitted being “the least” of all apostles, both were caught in the most ordinary circumstances of their lives. And once caught, there was no turning back: Isaiah offered himself to God to be sent while Paul became the best fisher of men in the early Church.

Remember our prayer before the Holy Communion, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you under my roof but only say the word and I shall be healed.”

Photo by author, bronze statue of Peter kneeling before Jesus after the miraculous catch of fish near the shore of Capernaum, 2017.

Every time we pray that, we admit we are caught up in Jesus, by Jesus. What a fitting confession just before we catch Jesus Body and Blood in the Holy Communion. And just like the gospel this Sunday, we find in every Mass, in every week of our lives, Jesus our Lord and Master is the most essential and prized catch we can always have.

We can go “fishing” all our lives but remain incomplete, unfulfilled and even lost without our best catch of all, Jesus who sees us too as His best catch ever. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.

Praying for discipline (and for those with breast cancer)

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Wednesday, Memorial of St. Agatha, Virgin & Martyr, 05 February 2025
Hebrews 12:4-7, 11-15     ><))))*> + ><))))*> + ><))))*>     Mark 6:1-6
Photo by author, Sakura Farm, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.
Today dear Lord,
I pray for more discipline
which is a frightening 
and misunderstood word
and concept for many
these days.
There are some who think
discipline is suppression of freedom,
a kind of constriction not realizing
it is in discipline we truly become
free; for some, discipline is optional,
even seasonal when in reality,
we need discipline in our entire life;
lastly, people have difficulty with
discipline because they see it only
as a human activity, a human effort
forgetting that God has a large part
in our discipline.

Brothers and sisters: You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children: My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges. Endure your trials as “discipline”… At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it (Hebrews 12:5-7, 11).

“Jesus Unrolls Book In the Synagogue” painting by James Tissot (1886-1894), brooklynmuseum.org
How I admire your own
discipline, Lord Jesus:
your coming home to
Nazareth and most especially
your practice of sabbath
are clear indications of your
great discipline!
How lovely that the word
discipline is also from disciple,
a follower;
as your follower,
help me continue with my
self-discipline
to inspire and teach
others too of the importance
of discipline in life
and in discipleship.
Amen.
*We also pray today
for all with breast cancer
being the memorial of
their patroness, St. Agatha
whose breasts were cut off
as one of the tortures she
endured; but after having a 
vision of St. Peter,
her breasts were restored
and completely healed
while in prison.

Keeping our confidence

The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Memorial of St. John Bosco, Priest, 31 January 2025
Hebrews 10:32-39     <*((((>< <*(((>< + ><)))*> ><))))*>     Mark 4:26-34
Photo by author, Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC, 20 March 2024.

Remember the days past when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a great contest of suffering… Therefore, do not throw away your confidence; it will have great recompense (Hebrews 10:32, 35).

Thank you,
O God our loving Father
for another month past
this new year;
there is indeed no other path
to take but forward
in you and with you
through Jesus.
How amazing,
dear Lord as I look back
to my many setbacks and problems
hurdled in the past,
the more I look forward
into the future!
The more I am excited
of the coming days ahead
because if I made it through
in the past,
through the long, dark nights
of trials and sufferings,
you are always with me
in Jesus.
Photo by author, St. Scholastica Spirituality Center, Tagaytay, August 2024.
Keep me faithful, Jesus;
let me not lose that confidence
in you, Lord, like the farmer
in your parable:
let me keep on sowing your
gospel in words and in deeds
especially among the young and 
the underprivileged like
St. John Bosco whose memorial
we celebrate today;
let me do whatever good 
I can do today;
most of all, 
like St. John Bosco,
let me love without measure
without claiming anything at all
except as your work, Lord Jesus
in sowing seeds until they
sprout to life and grow
until harvest time.
Amen.
Photo by author, Northern Blossoms, Atok, Benguet, 27 December 2024.